Surviving 2010, Continued…

Here are a few other areas we are going to work on:

Originally, we had a passion for coffee and it was our intention to just be a coffee shop, with a few pastries, as would be expected. However, we had people stop by the shop almost daily during construction and ask what we were going to offer for lunch! It very quickly became apparent that our future customer base wanted food to eat, not just coffee and pastries. We listened to that input and incorporated it into our plans, and I’m very happy that we did. Based on our coffee/espresso/pastry sales over the last 2 ½ years, we would have gone out of business by now if that was our only concept. Offering home made soup, salads, and sandwiches added another revenue source, and it has resulted in total sales that got us into the black and able to remain viable.

Now, the next step is to grow our food business. How do we do that exactly???
Here are my current ideas…
1. I have a photography studio, and I have some serious Photoshop/Graphic Arts skills. I’m going to take some product shots and incorporate them into an in-house marketing campaign using the 40” flat screen, as well as the 15” LCD digital photo frame at the POS, as I described previously with regard to photography sales. We have a number of regulars who see us as a coffee shop only. Getting some mouth-watering visuals up of our lunch products may convert some of them to lunch-regulars as well… We also offer some killer breakfast burritos made in-house (real scrambled eggs (not that egg-in-a-milk-carton garbage), Jimmy Dean sausage, potatoes, and shredded cheddar cheese, not to mention home made salsa!), as well as breakfast sandwiches with egg, cheese, and bacon on a toasted croissant or sunflower wheat bread. I think we can increase those sales with a few flashy photos!!
2. When the owner’s were completing the building façade remodel, we had no overhead signage. A work around for that issue was to get 4’ x 8’ signs made. I made an A-frame wood structure in the bed of my ’69 Chevy pickup and mounted the signs on that. That resulted in a mobile billboard, which I was able to move around every couple of weeks to get fresh eyes on it by passing traffic. I’m going to make new signs that will advertise our home made lunch items. If people have been driving by for 2 ½ years because we are a coffee shop, I hope to get some of them to come in for lunch!
3. Facebook has a pay-per-click advertising program that can be targeted to specific markets. I may try that, and direct the advertising to the Olympic Training Center, Memorial Hospital, and possibly to the 80909 zip code. I have not decided on this yet, but I think it will be worthwhile to try.
4. I bought a Panini grill, and offering hot sandwiches will boost our lunch sales. People get tired of the same old things, even if they are good. We will offer Panini specials, with a highlighted new sandwich every couple of weeks. These will get the visuals on the monitors as well…

I’m also looking into some unconventional revenue sources. One of those is to attempt to renegotiate our lease. We thought we did well when we nailed down our lease, but being rookies, we made a few mistakes. We agreed to rent increases over time based on an 11 year lease. We never planned for such difficult economic conditions… We just had a rent increase in December, and our rate is now too high for current economic conditions. We are hoping the owner’s will agree to new negotiations. Keep your fingers crossed for us, and we’d appreciate your prayers as well!!

Another area we have not developed is whole bean coffee sales. Our roaster was recently named Roaster of the Year!!! Our coffee product is top notch, and this recent national award confirms what we have thought all along. We sell very little whole bean product, though, because we have not marketed it. We don’t even have a whole bean menu board up!! I am working on some signage for the store to advertise our whole bean product, and we’ll be getting a whole bean menu board up. Since we only average about 5-10 pounds of whole bean sales a week, I think there is room for growth here. I’d like to get that up to 30 to 40 pounds a week by mid-year.

We have more ideas, but I’m out of time for now. I hope everyone is having a great week! Take care,
JD